15

Alas, I didn't make it to Petersburg or any of the small outlying cities after all.  When my traveling mates and I showed up to the train station, the only tickets still available were overnight in an upright position, and we would have had to make the trip twice in three days, so we elected to sleep in our beds.  Secretly I was kind of keen to do it, but it was clear that the other two guys weren't.  Still, I'm quite glad that I stayed in Moscow, because several great, even terrific, things happened over the week or so I was here and didn't have class.  First, and best, of all, I found some work teaching English to wealthy Muscovites' children.  I won't say much  more since such practices are almost certainly unlawful, but it's been great.  Acquaintances in the higher social sphere here, you can't have too many of them.  Otherwise, I did a number of things of interest here in Moscow, including going to see Mozart's Requiem and running in a 30 km cross country race.  Last Tuesday was the Day of National Unity, but the holiday has changed so much with the years that most Russians don't even really know what it means--they're just glad for a day off from work.  I look at a stock ticker outside my window and all the arrows are red and aiming downward, and, however little I know about the U.S.'s financial crisis, I know Russia's is worse.